HITLER'S SHADOW - National Archives and Records Administration

Mahler’s July 14, 1950, report on “Sedition Activities of the Scholl Twins” is
of interest to scholars of the White Rose insofar as the 17-page report includes
Gestapo efforts to stop the distribution of anti-Hitler leaflets before the arrest of
Hans and Sophie Scholl in February 1943. But it also paints Hans Scholl, whom
Mahler interrogated, as a Communist. Scholl came, Mahler said, from a “Marxistic
(sic) oriented family, which nevertheless spread a cloak of religious piety over its
existence.” White Rose leaflets, in Mahler’s retelling, “were atheistic and cultural
Bolshevistic propaganda….” Under interrogation, Hans Scholl argued “that
communism had been a decided improvement over the Czarist dynasty” and that
“an alliance between the Soviet Union and Germany could only be advantageous to
both nations.” Mahler further emphasized that White Rose member Falk Harnack
was the brother of Arvid Harnack, a leader in the Soviet spy ring in Germany known
as the Red Orchestra, and that the Gestapo had never been able to investigate the
possible connections between the two organizations. In reality, there was nothing
communistic about any of the White Rose leaflets. But the connection impressed
Special Agent Bechtold. He recommended “more active exploitation” of Mahler.
While in hiding, Mahler had his attorney appeal his criminal conviction. The
Superior State Court in Munich rejected Mahler’s appeal on December 21, 1951.
Mahler immediately worried for his safety. He tried to blackmail Max Lappler, a KPD
member, with exposure as a CIC informant if Lappler did not produce the “order”
by the East German Communist Party (SED) that Mahler thought prompted the
West German KPD to use criminal trials to neutralize former Gestapo figures. Such,
Mahler thought, would negate his conviction. 67 He also asked West Germany’s neo-
Nazi party (the Socialist Reich Party) to help him escape Germany for Argentina
and to provide him with financial assistance. He cited his loyalty to the Nazi party as
making him worthy of its aid. 68 The Mahler file ends with this request.
ENDNOTES
1 Allan A. Ryan, Jr., Klaus Barbie and the United States Government: The Report, with Documentary Appendix.
To the Attorney General of the United States (Frederick, MD: University Publications of America, 1983).
2 Tactical Interrogation of Members of the RSHA, May 21, 1945, NARA RG 226, Entry 119A, box 22, folder
621. W.R.C. Fortnightly Report, June 18, 1945, NARA RG 226, Entry 119A, box 25, folder 639. Saint to
Saint Washington, Info Saint, Austria, War Room Summary ending July 18, NARA RG 226, Entry 88, box
388, folder 645. These documents were declassified in 2000.
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